Episode 6.4: ‘She is a Haunting’ by Trang Thanh Tran
Happy Halloween!
To add a little haunting into your day, we’ve got a brand new episode for you! ‘She is a Haunting’ by Trang Thanh Tran has been on our list for a long time and it couldn’t be a more perfect season to feature it on the podcast.
Jade Nguyen has always lied to fit in. She's straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough – at least for this summer with her estranged father in Vietnam. Just five weeks of ignoring the quietly decaying French colonial house he's fixing up, then college and freedom are hers.
But soon Jade begins waking up every morning certain that something has clawed down her throat. . . from the inside. Then the ghost of a beautiful bride visits her with a cryptic warning: DON'T EAT.
When her father and little sister don't believe her, Jade decides to scare them into leaving by staging some haunting events of her own. She recruits Florence, the daughter of her dad's business associate (and more of a distraction than Jade bargained for) to help.
But the house has other plans. It's hungry. A home, after all, is only as powerful as those who breathe new life into its bones. And this one is determined never to be abandoned again …
This deliciously spooky, yearningly romantic ghost story from a brilliant debut author will thrill fans of Kalynn Bayron and Wilder Girls by Rory Power.
We’ve got a haunted house, a Gothic mystery, a ghost and questions about belonging - but does it tick any of our dark academia boxes?
In this episode we discuss:
Colonialism and post-colonialism, and what we’re not taught about it
Natural horror - bugs and parasites and creepy crawly things
The supernatural vs the psychological in the haunted house
You can listen to it here:
TEXTS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
‘She is a Haunting’ by Trang Thanh Tran
‘The Haunting of Hill House’ by Shirley Jackson
‘Mexican Gothic’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt
‘Summer Sons’ by Lee Mandelo
If you want to get into the spooky spirit and try out ‘She is a Haunting’, we’d love it if you considered using our bookshop.org link below to purchase your copy of the book which helps us fund ‘The Dark Academicals’ and gives back to independent bookshops at no extra cost to you.
You can also sign up to The Dark Academicals Book Club mailer for exclusive book club content, extra episodes and giveaways!
